My mom used to make this all the time, it was one of her favourites to make 'cause she'd do it in a huge dish and it would be enough for lunch and/or dinner for the next couple of days. What I didn't know was how long it takes to prepare, so it's the sort of dish that is both time consuming yet time saving.

I hadn't had it in ages but I know I loved it, I remember there being something about it that was very different to the usual minced meat dish, apart from the brinjals. When I think of a dish containing mince, I always expect it to have the usual suspect of flavours of tomato, garlic, oregano, basil etc. I decided to tackle this dish and was very happy with the outcome! It was definitely a distinct taste and the moment I had my first bite, it was as if I've been eating it every other week, the memory of the taste hadn't left me.

I'm not exactly a food fundie so I don't know how many other meat dishes are done this way but it's certainly a very different way to prepare mince in my opinion. The key ingredients being cinnamon, cloves or allspice. What a delicious taste! While the mince was cooking it gave off those rich aromas, which sort of confused my brain a bit because I knew it was mince.

My husband had no idea what the dish was when he saw it sitting on the counter resting, he had a good whiff and all he got out of it was a cheese topped dish of some sort but he could also smell the spices in the air which he thought was a pudding being prepared.

I'm happy to say that he absolutely loved it! We both loved it! Every bite, right to the last. As well as every bite of the seconds :D

This recipe is a mix of 4 different yet similar recipes I found in my mom's old recipe file. There were notes on all of them so I'm guessing she used them all at some stage. I couldn't decide which to go with so I decided I would make my own out of all 4.

I remember my mom including potato into it as well and after a bit of reading around the net I found out that moussaka is basically minced meat layered with a veggie of your choice, the most common being brinjal, courgettes and potato. One site even suggested using all three in one dish. I've decided I'll definitely try that someday. Another veggie that I think would be great in this dish is butternut. I normally sprinkle or add cinnamon into my butternut dishes so I think it would be a great veg to use.

Play around with the layers and enjoy!

Ingredients

7-8 Large Round Eggplants

2 cups Grated Parmesan/Mozarella

Olive oil, for frying or brushing over the eggplants

Meat Sauce

1.5 kg Beef Mince/Lamb Mince

1 Large Onion, chopped

½ cup Dry Red Wine

1 can Tomatoes

1 Tbsp Tomato Purée

1 Large Clove Garlic, crushed

2-3 tsp Cinnamon, ground

1 tsp Cloves, ground

Salt & Pepper to taste

Olive Oil, enough to brown the onion

Bechamel

4 cups Milk

6 Tbsp Butter

8 Tbsp Flour

1 Cup Grated Parmesan

4 Egg Yolks

Salt, Pepper & Nutmeg to taste

Method

Prepare the Eggplants

Cut eggplants into 1.5cm slices

Sprinkle generously with salt & allow to stand for 1-2 hours to sweat, this helps remove the bitter taste

Rinse eggplants under cold water, drain and pat dry with a paper towel

Brush eggplants with olive oil and grill until lightly browned

or

Fry eggplants in olive oil on a high heat until lightly browned

Tip: Before adding eggplants to the pan, I press them down on paper towels to make sure there's as little water in them as possible otherwise you'll have hot oil spitting at you

Drain on paper towels and set aside

Prepare Meat Sauce

In a large pan or pot, heat olive oil, cook onion until transparent

Add mince and brown the meat

Tip: To avoid the mince boiling, fry small amounts of mince in a seperate frying pan then add to the onions